MALIGNANT

malignant

(adjective) dangerous to health; characterized by progressive and uncontrolled growth (especially of a tumor)

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Adjective

malignant (comparative more malignant, superlative most malignant)

Harmful, malevolent, injurious.

(medicine) Tending to produce death; threatening a fatal issue.

Antonyms

• (medicine): benign, non-malignant

Noun

malignant (plural malignants)

A deviant; a person who is hostile or destructive to society.

(historical, derogatory, obsolete) A person who fought for Charles I in the English Civil War.

Source: Wiktionary

Ma*lig"nant, a. Etym: [L. malignans, -antis, p. pr. of malignare, malignari, to do or make maliciously. See Malign, and cf. Benignant.]

1. Disposed to do harm, inflict suffering, or cause distress; actuated by extreme malevolence or enmity; virulently inimical; bent on evil; malicious. A malignant and a turbaned Turk. Shak.

2. Characterized or caused by evil intentions; pernicious. "Malignant care." Macaulay. Some malignant power upon my life. Shak. Something deleterious and malignant as his touch. Hawthorne.

3. (Med.)

Definition: Tending to produce death; threatening a fatal issue; virulent; as, malignant diphtheria. Malignant pustule (Med.), a very contagious disease, transmitted to man from animals, characterized by the formation, at the point of reception of the virus, of a vesicle or pustule which first enlarges and then breaks down into an unhealthy ulcer. It is marked by profound exhaustion and usually fatal. Called also charbon, and sometimes, improperly, anthrax.

Ma*lig"nant, n.

1. A man of extrems enmity or evil intentions. Hooker.

2. (Eng. Hist.)

Definition: One of the adherents of Charles L. or Charles LL.; -- so called by the opposite party.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

MALIGNANT

Etymology

Adjective

Antonyms

Noun

Recent Word Finds

Word of the Day

ERASE

Do you know this game?